


You Left Your Own Grooves in my Heart

by orphan_account



Series: Security Guard Shane [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Security Guard, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Meetings, Insecurity, Light Angst, M/M, Meet-Cute, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Ryan gets lost during a BFU episode, Shane is the security guard who helps him find his way out, Short, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24434953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Ryan’s head flew up, his eyes wide. He swung his flashlight across the room, illuminating the walls and doors around him still blurred from afar and menacingly silent.He no longer recognized where he was."Ryan gets lost while the crew is out shooting an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. His equipment goes out and his phone dies, and to make matters worse, he'd left his contacts at home and glasses at the hotel. It's perhaps one of the shittiest days of his life. Thankfully, Shane Madej is a security guard at the abandoned prison and comes on down to help him get out.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Series: Security Guard Shane [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764643
Comments: 18
Kudos: 152





	You Left Your Own Grooves in my Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea a couple of nights ago but only now did I write it. It's not beta-read nor did I look over it once I was done, so sorry if there are any mistakes or anything I missed/forgot about, but I hope you enjoy the reading.

You Left Your Own Grooves in my Heart 

“Fuck!! Jes- AAGHHH!!”

“Ryan, calm down, CALM down, dude,” Brent laughed. “It’s- it’s just a curtain man!”

Ryan whipped around to him, voice high. “What the fuck is a curtain doing in a prison?! Did not one person think ‘oh, hey, this might be mistaken for something else?’ Jesus…”

TJ chuckled behind the camera. “Well, normally that ‘someone else’ is able to see.” Ryan rolled his eyes. So he forgot to bring his contacts and he left his glasses at the hotel, big deal. They were never going to let it go, though.

  
“Keep on your toes, Ryan, else you’ll think your shadow’s a ghost,” said Brent, and Ryan let out a long-suffering sigh amidst the giggling.

“You’re all jerks, I hope you know that.”

“We know.”

—

“Separate investigations? Are you out of your fucking mind?” Ryan asked. Brent shook his head. “Do you not see the problem with that?”  
  


“I can, but you can’t.” 

Ryan playfully punched him in the arm, huffing in irritation. “I fucking hate you. Just- fine- but let’s do it before I change my mind. How are we doing it?”

Already, TJ and Devon were fishing out their body cam straps. “We thought we’d have you both venture individually on different floors for ten minutes, give or take. Nothing too complicated. We don’t want you getting lost, Ryan.” Ryan pouted. 

“Do you both have your phones on you?” Brent uttered a yeah as he begrudgingly wiggled into his harness, straps chafing at his ribs.

“Yeah, but it’s low on battery. Should be good enough for just a ten-minute run, though,” said Ryan.

“Okay, well,” TJ fiddled with his cameras, “keep your eye on the time. Brent, we’re gonna send you up, and Ryan, you’ll stay on this floor as a precaution. Brent, you can get going on up and start whenever, Ryan, just start as you’d like. We’ll meet up again at the elevators here.”

Quietly, Ryan nodded, but that veneer of calm was really a flame being blown out in a hurricane. He looked down the darkened hall, flashlight in hand, and just uttered in agreement.

—

“This is the worst fucking thing I have ever agreed to. Ugh, I wonder if they can still hear me back there,” Ryan said, glancing down at the camera below his face. He turned back for a spare second. “TJ? Devon?”

No response.

Even worse was his dim flashlight that barely did anything for his vision as it was. To be fair, he wasn’t that hard of seeing, but being down in the dark with barely 8 feet of vision in a ghost-infested building was fucking terrifying. Every shadow loomed, swirled in his eyes like a waiting trap ready for him to get too close before it swallowed him down.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat and kept walking.

Eventually, Ryan walked into a wide-open space that looked like a mess hall.

“I think… I think I’m gonna, uh, look around here and then start heading back. I’ve been walking already for give or take five minutes, I think?” he said faintly at the camera, and then he called out, softly, “Is anybody here?”

Only his echoes responded, and he toured the walls, noting the many open halls of the dilapidated building.

_Tkkk. Chikkkuuut. Tik_.

Ryan turned around, eyes bulging so much it nearly hurt as he strained to look through the blurred edges of the darkness with his flashlight. He held his breath, and a deep pounding in his chest overtook his senses as blood rushed through his ears and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He didn’t move an inch, afraid of giving himself away to whatever the fuck was in the room with him. Beside him, he heard it again, the faint scratching and scraping, like something crawling across the walls or through the floorboards.

Two bright yellow eyes stared at him from the floor where he shined his torch, coming through a loose plank in the floor, and Ryan screamed.

He darted into the hall behind him on instinct, watching behind him as several more pairs of eyes popped out through the doors he’d run past, peeking out in curiosity before scurrying further down the hall with him. He nearly smashed into a wall at full force when the hall came to a stop and turned into the nearest doorway before continuing to run again, swerving through and through before he would will himself to look back, daring his eyes to find the eyes again. 

He rushed, once more, through an open hall, and he tripped, stumbling and crashing to the floor, the camera digging into his skin as the air was stolen out from under him in pain… and a fleshy ball that looked like a possum darted past his vision in a similar panic, eyes lightly aglow by the beams of the flashlight.

Ryan stared agape and silent while its claws scraped against the wooden and renovated concrete floors alike, its tail disappearing into the darkness as Ryan’s bated breath became a deep sigh of relief and embarrassment.

He stood up slowly, wincing at the throbbing in his sides and chest where he and the camera had fallen in sharper angles, and heaved to regain his breath. He looked down at the condition of both the handheld and the harness cam, hissing when the throb of his chest echoed in his shoulder and then wincing another time when he’d registered the damage down, the camera’s glass clearly shattered and the sides scraped up from the fall. The handheld was dealt even more damage, chipped and bent at different points, and the head of it clearly smashed by the fall. The lenses were unsalvageable. “Jeez. TJ and Devon aren’t-”

Ryan’s head flew up, his eyes wide. He swung his flashlight across the room, illuminating the walls and doors around him still blurred from afar and menacingly silent.

He no longer recognized where he was.

—

Ryan was panicking. Shit, why did he have to be so stupid? Why did he agree to this? He shook his flashlight, and its beams flickered across the ceiling. Fuck.

Ryan fished out his phone, hoping that there was still some battery in it and sighing in relief to find it with 9% left. His fingers flew across the screen, dialing TJ’s number and as it rang, he noted that it’s been 12 minutes since the separate investigations began, the time, 3:25AM. TJ picked up on the 4th ring.

“Ryan? Are you on your wa-”

“I’m- I’m lost, TJ,” Ryan said quietly, and the line went silent.

“You’re lost? How? Do you recognize where you are?” In the background, he heard Brent ask if he’s okay.

“I- I saw something in the dark and I ran, man, there were so many fucking halls and before I knew it, I was- I couldn’t recognize the place. I don’t know where I’m at right now, and I think my flashlight is gonna die.”

He heard Devon cuss under her breath. “Okay, do you think you can stay put? We’re gonna call the owner and see if she has someone she can send. How much battery does your phone have left?”

Ryan glanced at it again. “S-seven percent.”

“Can you keep us updated in case anything happens?” she asked, and Ryan numbly said yes. He agreed to stay put, and the three reassured him before they hung up.

Alone and on high alert, Ryan merely looked out into the darkness. He shifted around where he sat, trying to get comfortable as the ache continued to persist where he’d fallen on the harness camera like trying to settle to let a pinched vein continue its course. When he’d laid his hand back, though, he shrieked lightly, hand dragging across the pebbles and dirt on the floor when it landed on _something_. He lifted his hand quickly and saw a yellowed rectangle on the ground. Cautiously, he picked it up and examined it closely with the flashlight.

It was a driver’s license framing against a blue background, a man with a weirdly shaped face framed by a scruffy beard and a bandana holding back long locks of flighty brown hair. The details written to the side were scratched out after years of neglect, Ryan noting that it had expired last year, and he could feel sharp grooves scratched into the backside.

Behind him, he heard a heavy creak very unlike that skittering of the possums from earlier. He pocketed the driver’s license and whipped around with his light, scanning the room as his heart once again picked up, settling into his stomach. The creaking had a rhythm not unlike… footsteps, and it came from a door down across the hall from him.

His eyes stayed glued, staring so hard he could feel the strain it put behind his eyes.

The creaking got louder.

  
  
  


Closer.

  
  


A man rounded the corner and Ryan jumped back, yelping in fear at a very real human being across the room, one that he already couldn’t see enough and the resulting landing on his ass jolting the pain in his chest.

He clutched at his shoulder, choking on a scream as the being rushed forwards to him without any warning, long limbs and grabby hands as Ryan continued to try and back away, heart drowning out whatever sound it was coming through the guy’s opening and closing mouth.

“Hey-”

“GET THE FUCK AWAY!!!”

“Si-”

“GET OFF!! GET OFF!!!”

“Sir!”  
  


“FUCK YOU!!!”

The man yelled, “SIR!! CALM DOWN!!” and in shock, Ryan opened his frightened eyes that he hadn’t even realized he’d closed, staring up at a gangly man inches from his face and whose hands were tightly gripping his shoulders from where he squatted across from Ryan on the floor. He had a sharp nose and jutting jaw that was dramatized by the now flickering flashlight Ryan was holding below them both, and his amber eyes were alight in the dark. Despite having lost the beard and the long locks of hair, now reduced to shaved sides and a short american crew cut, Ryan still recognized him.

The guy in the driver’s license, but this close, Ryan could see that he was older looking, and dressed in a loose-fitting grayish-blue shirt and tie, lower body adorned in dress pants held up by a tight belt and a badge and flashlight hanging at the side. He was a security guard, it seemed, and a sharp and handsome one at that.

The guy smiled lightly before Ryan would realize he was staring and he quickly scrambled back muttering apologies as they stood from the floor.

“What’s going on, man? What are you doing out here?” the man asked as he swooped down to pick up Ryan’s cellphone that he dropped.

“Um,” Ryan dumbly started, unsure of how to speak to the guy, “I got lost. I- I wasn’t breaking in, I swear! I’m with a camera crew and we were filming and um, I sort of ended up running here on accident.”

The guy smiled amused with questioning brows. “What could’ve had you running all the way out here? This is the west wing, farthest from the entrance. Nobody ever comes out here.”

“IthoughtIsawademonandran.” Ryan flushed up to his ears.

“What?”  
  


“I thought I saw a demon and ran, okay?! I- I think I saw a possum, but I can’t tell right now. I forgot my glasses and contacts so I’m a little blind at the moment.” As expected, the guy bust out laughing on the spot, and if it weren’t embarrassing for Ryan, he might’ve admitted that his laughter was particularly charming. Soothing, even.

“Are you serious, kid? Demons don’t exist!” he said, thumbing at crinkly eyes.

Oh boy, now Ryan was gonna be thankful but this was crossing the line. “Are you kidding me?! There’s so much evidence out there dude!” he yelled. “How could you not believe in demons?!”

“Because they’re unrealistic! Beings that come from another world, who live only to terrorize us?! That’s ridiculous!”

“The evide-”

“Dude, no offense, but fuck your evidence. We have editing software. Whatever it is, it’s most likely made up.”

Ryan glowered at him. “And what about eye witness stories, man?”

He shrugged. “The human mind is a powerful thing,” he said, and Ryan about lost it.

“Whatever, man, I’d like to show you the truth someday.” The man smiled.

“Someday?”

“Well, first I’d like to get out of here.” He jumped like a lightbulb went off in his head, and uttered, “Oh, yeah” with a giggle. He made a gesture at Ryan to hand over his flashlight to him, but when it jiggled against his hand, it gave alarming dying flickers and then went out for good. They were plunged into darkness.

“Just follow me,” he calmly said, drawing out his own light. “I know the way back to the entrance.”

Ryan called out as he began walking away, telling him he was gonna send a text to his friends first. Ryan’s heart leapt when he read that his phone was at 2%, and he rushed to send the text.

**Today** 3:36AM

Devon! Some security guy found me!

Battery is at 2, we’ll find our way out!

He watched the “delivered” turn to “read” and the three dots pop up, but before it could go through, his screen blackened, and his phone died. He rushed to catch up to where the security guy stood with his light, waiting for him, and they began walking out of the hallway.

They walked in comfortable silence for a good few seconds before Ryan almost tripped again against a loose floorboard, and the security guy’s arm quickly shot out to brace him.

“You said you can’t see right now?” he asked.

“Yeah, I left my contacts at home and my glasses at our hotel. Pretty shitty day, to be honest.”

The guy stopped for a bit and began rifling through a pack on his waist he hadn’t seen earlier, turning around then to draw out a pair of transparent clear framed glasses. “Try these on. I’m wearing contacts right now so I don’t need them. They’re too small for my head sometimes, anyway,” he said, handing them off.

Ryan stared a bit in awe and shock before he tried them on, willing to accept whatever gratitude he could take.

The frames fit his head perfectly and his vision cleared. It was almost the same as his prescription. “Shit dude, these are perfect!” he said, glancing about and taking in the dusty floors and deteriorating thresholds. “Thanks, um, a lot.” He hoped he wasn’t flushing. This was a bit embarrassing, having to rely on someone else’s things to get by.

“It ain’t a problem. Say, I never caught your name?” he asked as they began walking.

“I’m Ryan Bergara.”

“Cool. I knew several Ryans growing up. The name’s Madej. Shane Madej,” he said, and Ryan turned to him with a look of disappointment, Shane not even making an effort to hide the amusement and satisfaction on his face.

“You didn’t-”

“I just did, deal with it, baby, I’ve been hankering to pull that for years.”

They both laughed in the dark hall and Ryan could almost forget that he was lost in one of America’s largest prisons and was instead hanging out with a new friend who was… admittedly cute.

“So,” Ryan started, “what’s got someone like you working in a place like this?”

“Not much, really. Had trouble finding a job in video production, needed something to keep myself afloat so I wouldn’t have to leech off of my brother down in LA and I ended up here,” he shrugged. Ryan turned to him.

“Dude! I live in LA! And I do video production!” he beamed, and Shane seemed to light up at that. “How long have you been around here?”

“In California? Not too long. I graduated in 2009 before came down here and what is it now, 2020? Give or take nine years, really.” He was smiling now. “Say, if we make it out of here, could you tell my brother I said hello? This job’s had me busy for some time now, and I haven’t gotten the chance to talk with him as of late. Money’s been busy keeping the lights on, to be honest, and I haven’t gotten the chance in a long time to tell him hi and, uh, thanks for sticking around back then and sorry I haven’t been in touch.”

Ryan giggled for no reason other than just because. Something about the guy made him wanna laugh along to everything he said, and the fact that they clicked so quickly was astonishing. “Yeah, sure. I just look for ‘Madej’, right?”

“Yup, can’t miss it. Only so very few of us here in the states.”

“Is he a sasquatch like you?”

Shane drew back in mock offense before dropping the act and giggling, “Yeah, yeah. Try not to get lost in the crowd while looking for him, though. I’d hate for him to accidentally stomp on you-”

“Hey!”

“-what are you, four feet?” Shane laughed. Ryan rolled his eyes at him but nothing would hide the fact that he was still smiling, cheeks flushed with it.

“Excuse you, I’m five foot ten-”

“No the fuck you aren’t-”

“I’m average height! You’re just a skyscraper in- in dress shoes!” Shane wheezed next to him, hand at his stomach in glee. “And don’t think I missed you saying ‘if we get out’ earlier! Oh my god, are you a serial killer?” Ryan fazed out staring at him in fear of an answer.

Shane composed himself in a split second and smiled softly at Ryan, his eyes going dead cold and cutting into his own. “Whoops. Jig’s up.”

Ryan felt his heart drop, past his stomach and through the floorboards it went. The hall was pin-drop quiet.

“Just kidding.”

Ryan blinked.

“You fucking ASSHOLE!! Don’t DO THAT!!!” he yelled, gawking and playfully throwing a punch at Shane who was laughing away like he hadn’t just nearly given Ryan a fucking heart attack. Ryan huffed next to him. It was funny, but god, that was fucking terrifying. “You _actually_ almost scared me to death. I don’t think I can ever fucking forgive you for that,” he laughed. “Your serial killer gig is really convincing.”

“Thank you, I made it myself.”

“I should kill you for that.”

“One, and you’re calling me the serial killer. Two, baby, I’d like to see you try.”

They walked into a mess hall that looked similar to the one that Ryan had entered earlier before shit had hit the fan. Shane piped up watching him take in the place. “There’s another give or take 10 minutes from here on out. I don’t know how fast you were running, but you covered a lot of distance pretty quickly earlier.”

Ryan hummed. He wished he had a phone still alive to check because he’d have loved to see how much time had elapsed between the two of them. Now that he looked back, they’d walked quite a bit, but the minutes had seemed to slip past him while he was with Shane.

Shane brought them down another hall, making no real acknowledgment of the filth coating the walls. Seriously, if Ryan had to work here without a face mask like Shane was, he might as well have asbestos poisoning.

Without warning, Shane spoke. “Y’know, I’m a little glad to see someone else around here tonight.”

Ryan looked at him curiously. “Why, are there no other guards here?”

“Not really, no,” he shook his head. “It’s an abandoned prison, so there isn’t really a big demand for us, and many aren’t willing to work a place like this. There’s the day shift, yeah, but I’m the only daily night guard here. It gets lonely, and I only have my thoughts and the rats to listen to on most nights.” He chuckled at the whole rat thing, but it sounded hollow to Ryan’s ears.

“Thoughts?”  
  


“Yeah. The usual stuff plaguing creatives, y’know? ‘Was it worth spending years of my life pursuing the shit I did?’ ‘I’m not gonna make it to the big screens.’ ‘I’ve not gotten farther from the point I started.’” He went quiet for a second, and then, so low it was almost a whisper, “All that effort, and it’s amounted to nothing.”

There was no crack in his veneer, but Ryan could still see it, past the soft smiling eyes of resignation. He could still see it because he saw the same shit in Shane that he saw in himself, and he looked on at him in wonder of his fortitude. The fact that after all this time, he had the strength to keep this up despite all of the doubts that plagued him. 

“I don’t think so,” was all Ryan could say. “I think any lesser person would be driven insane and, y’know…? You’re a pretty brave dude to be doing a job that no one else would dare do for your passion. I think all this goes to show that… you’re a great person? You’re brave and skilled at what you do because you keep doing it. I don’t think these years have amounted to nothing,” Ryan smiled at him, tracing the lines of tension and exhaustion in Shane’s face, faintly illuminated by the light, “I think they’ve clouded your vision of who you are… but I could definitely see you coming out through it all much stronger. You work for the shit you want, and not many people are willing to pour their blood and sweat into their dreams.”

Ryan turned his face forward again, watching the light bounce with Shane’s steps. “Whatever employer is refusing to hire you is a fool. Whoever gives you shit is a fool,” he giggled. “Fix your fool brain, Shane, good looks can’t save you, but you’re a great fucking person, especially to get me so attached to you this quick.”

When Ryan glanced back at Shane, he was looking down with a sweet smile on his face, the one people get when they’re embarrassed and unable to handle the praise, and it was a bit difficult to see in the dim corridor, but he could tell that the tips of his ears and the back of his neck were bright red. Before Ryan would realize he was staring, Shane turned to Ryan in shock.

“You think I’m good-looking?” 

Ryan choked. One because he’s been caught, and two— “Is that seriously all you took away from this?! That I think you’re good looking?!”

“So, you do think I’m good looking.” Ryan guffawed brightly, the moment broken but not unpleasantly.

“Oh my god, you’re the worst.”

“Huh? What was that? I’m the worst? And here I thought you were calling me great just seconds ago,” Shane laughed.

“You know what I fucking mean, dammit,” Ryan said, and he was about to continue when they turned the corner and saw a lit room down the hall. Ryan recognized it. _The room that they were originally shooting the overview with_.

Ryan began dashing forward, overexcited, and happy to go back to his friends when he realized that Shane was still standing at the threshold, flashlight shut off. When he looked back, Shane had a sad look on his face. “Shane? You okay, big guy?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Just dreading returning to my shift. It’s a bit of a bummer, you know, going back and keeping to the dark when you meet such a lovely sunlit person like you.”

Ryan’s eyebrows shot up and he flushed down to his chest. A small smile pulled at the corner of his agape lips. Without warning, he swiftly walked back to Shane, pulled him down by the collar, and rose on his tiptoes to plant a savoury kiss on his lips. He wasn’t the best at it, but apparently, it didn’t matter because Shane rose to the occasion, arms wrapping around the back of his head and waist to deepen the kiss. It felt like forever before they separated, yet it felt like it was over too soon, and when they’d fallen apart, Shane looked absolutely debauched, rosy-cheeked, and practically glowing.

“Thank you for tonight, Ryan Bergara,” he said, beaming. “I think, tonight, I can move on and past all,” he gestured around them, “this. It was a delight meeting you.”

And with that, he was walking back from where he came as Ryan watched, a big smile lighting his face, and by god, if Ryan didn’t already believe in seeing love, seeing Shane would’ve made him a believer.

He turned around and skipped towards the light with a pep in his step.

—

“I can’t believe you mooched on security dude and didn’t get his number!”

Ryan buried his head into his hands, the laughter of his coworkers ringing around him. “I already told you, my phone was dead, we didn’t have anything to write with, and we were preoccupied at the moment!”

“What was he like? Tall, dark, and handsome?” Andrew asked.

“What the fuck was he, Batman? No!” Ryan exclaimed, rolling his eyes. Then, under his breath, “More like tall, white, and handsome.”

“Batman’s a white guy.”

“Shut up.”

“Speaking of, where’d you get those glasses?” asked Sara, pointing at the clear framed glasses hanging onto his denim jacket pocket. Ryan blanched for a second and then jumped.

“Oh shit! I never gave back his glasses!”

“You borrowed his glasses?” Quinta prodded, amusement painting her face, and Ryan groaned at God, cursing them for subjecting him to this shit.

“I left my glasses at the hotel and my contacts at home, okay?!”

“So why did you bring them with you?” asked Garrett. Ryan went silent, not really having an answer, and his coworkers had a hard laugh before Jen (thank god for Jen) nagged at them and they split.

“No respect in this building for a twenty-nine-year-old and his sexuality crisis, jeez,” Ryan uttered into his hand, and Brent, who overheard him, proceeded to bust a gut laughing at the whole of the situation.

— 

When Ryan got home, he threw his stuff onto the couch of his apartment and headed for the showers, praying that Roland hadn’t yet used up all the hot water. He deserved a nice, hot bath, honestly, and some quick crush that he can’t even rekindle wasn’t gonna stop him.

He rifled through the pockets of his jeans and jacket before he threw it into the laundry basket having learned his lesson about not checking pockets beforehand. Aside from the glasses, there wasn’t anything else in his-

His hand scraped against a hard plastic surface, one that felt dirty with grime and dust and scratched with deep grooves down in his upper right pocket. Curiously, he drew out the item…

It was Shane’s driver’s license, the one that he picked up before Shane found him. Ryan stared at it. And then he jumped. Holy shit! The details on the front were all scratched out but he turned it around to look at the back where he’d last felt grooves but hadn’t had the opportunity to investigate. On the back, grit and dirt seemingly having found a home between the carvings, was a light sketched phone number with what seemed to have been a sharp, jutting object. Ryan ran his fingers over it.

Holy shit. Running back to the living room, he grabbed his phone off the table and proceeded to dial the number that was on the back, practically reverberating with excitement.

The number rang once. Rang twice. Then a third and a fourth and Ryan was almost about to give up when on the fifth-

“Hello? Scott speaking?”

Ryan’s gut came to a boil with disappointment. “Um- sorry, I think I have the wrong number. Sorry.”

“Oh- no worries, dude. It’s okay,” the guy said and he was about to hang up if it weren’t for the awkward atmosphere. Then-

“How’d you get this number? Or- Uh- Who were you looking for?”

Ryan giggled nervously. “Oh, I- I found this driver’s license of the guy who helped me out a few days ago? I was shooting a film in a prison for work and I got lost when he found me and helped me find my way through, and I forgot I still had his license and glasses and called the number behind the card and called it.”

The line was quiet in suspense. “Did you know the name of the guy?”

“Uh, yeah, his name was Shane? Shane Madej? Look, man, I’m sorry I called you by accident, but-”  
  


“My name is Madej. Scott Finn Madej,” he said, and the hope jumped back into Ryan’s heart.

“Oh- Really?! Well, I should know it just from the way you both introduced yourselves with a James Bond reference, but holy shit! Oh shit! This reminds me, he actually wanted me to tell you some stuff— he says hello, thanks for sticking by his side, and he’s sorry he hasn’t been able to call lately. Said that money’s been busy keeping the lights on-”

“Sir,” Scott said bluntly, and for a moment, Ryan thinks he’s pissed him off which was the last thing he wanted to do.

“I- Yes?” Ryan asked slowly.

”Are you sure it was Shane you saw?” Scott asked tentatively.

”Uh- yeah, he told me about LA and pursuing video production and everything. Why? Is there something the matter?” Ryan asked and curled up against the corner of the couch. Was something wrong? Was there some impersonator or something?

“I- I don’t know how to tell you this,” the guy said, voice low like any higher and it would break into pieces like fragile glass, “but Shane died two- two years ago. Um- He- He died trying to find his way out after getting hurt inside the prison.” 

  
The line went deathly quiet. Ryan could hear him gulp, swallowing down tears.  
  


“The last time we talked, we were, uh, fighting, and it was three months before he would die. I didn’t want him taking the job if he was going to be the only night guard on duty, said that it wasn’t worth it.” Scott’s voice dropped further as he went, and he took a deep breath that rattled when he exhaled before continuing.  
  


“He told me, ‘Scott, _money is busy keeping the lights on_ , but you’re wasting it on me. I want to go out there and be able to support myself, not have to rely on you!’”

“Then I never saw him again.”

And in that all-consuming, devastating moment, Ryan remembered looking down a darkened hall, watching Shane round the bend full of glee in complete lucidity. In the hallway where no light touched, he had watched Shane walk away untouched by the darkness, and his flashlight turned off and hanging at his side as he went.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so fucking sorry, I swear I'll write an alternative ending that's happier. (Part of it is that ik the ending came sort of out of nowhere.)  
> I wrote this mainly because I thought, "huh, wouldn't it be fun to read something, then find out something at the end and be able to go back and see the clues sprinkled in?"
> 
> I hope yall liked it, I actually like these short fics I've been making more than the one i spent two weeks writing. Again, I didn't get this double checked, and I actually wrote this in one day so sorry abt any mistakes you may find.
> 
> Also, I know I left it as an open ending, but I like to think that Shane helping out one last person find their way out of the prison helped him move on to the afterlife and ended his loneliness down in the prison. 
> 
> And for those who didn't catch it because it was really really subtle, Shane appeared at 3:33AM, so if you're superstitious, there's that, but the very specific reason that Shane came to Ryan was because Ryan picked up his driver's license, which was something he had a physical attachment to when he was alive. Ergo, stroke of luck and Ryan finding his shit = Shane coming to Ryan. Also, Ryan’s stuff drained so quickly because of Shane.
> 
> And when Shane said he graduated in 2009 but claims he’s been in cali for 9 years when it’s 2020? He wasn’t lying. He’s technically been there for eleven years, but, uh, he did die two years prior to when this is set, so, 9 years. And frankly, if you’ve graduated during the Great Recession and even afterwards, had to rely on someone for almost nine straight years because you kept getting rejected jobs in your industry? I wasn’t thinking much about it then, but when I look back, I can see why Shane dipped, too, sort of.
> 
> Another addition is simply that I was captivated by the idea of Ryan getting what he wants (undeniable encounters with a ghost) but at the cost of something else he cherished (love). Imagine, just a prize at your reach, and you fight for it with the support of all these people, but you don’t find out till later that you can’t have your cake and eat it, both. It all just had my cogs turning.


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